Do not drink from the River Nile

In November 2017, a public storm of outrage erupted on social media in Egypt after a video was shared on Twitter. It showed Egyptian Pop singer Sherine Abdel Wahab (1980) making a light-hearted comment at one of her concerts about Egypt’s Nile river when her audience requested her to sing her famous song 'Mashrebtesh Men Nilha' (translation: 'Didn't You Drink from the Nile').

During the twelve seconds segment of the video, Sherine quipped: “You’ll get bilharzia [schistosomiasis] if you drink from the Nile.” She then suggested that her audience drink bottled mineral water Evian. “It is better,” she said.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health responded to Sherine’s remark in the video, stating that it has long combated the parasitic disease that once plagued Egypt, and 'reduced its prevalence to 0.2 percent,' reported the news outlet Egypt Today.

While some Egyptian people criticized Sherine and vowed to stop listening to her songs, others supported and defended her. Then, the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate decided, after conducting the necessary investigations, on banning Abdel Wahab from singing in Egypt for two months. This period ended on January 14, 2018.

But her ordeal did not end there. After she was already banned from singing in Egypt for 'mocking' the Nile River, in February 2018, Sherine was also sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined for 'insulting Egypt.' The court also ordered Sherine to pay a fine of 5,000 EGP.

Sherine apologized for her remarks, saying that the video was recorded during her concert in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) in 2016.

This bullying treatment of a woman is a dark and troubling signal of a society ruled by still immature and medieval men.